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Da gods are angry!

24 June 2009 88 Comments

Da gods must be angry!

With packing winds of up to 83 kilometers (52 miles) an hour – with gusts of up to 102 kilometers (63 miles) – this is one storm that not only created havoc in its path, lives were lost, but a host of other storm related problems like floods, landslides and stranded people that its almost like one storm that enveloped the country. It even spawned tornado and big waves sa Barrio Siete ni Malen in the Eastern Visayas region. Consider the so many inter-island travelers stranded anywhere and everywhere. Weird! Weird! O! Feria!

I’m not making fun of the country’s first swine flu-related fatality. I poke fun at the fak that of all places, Swine Flu paralyzed the House of pork.

Da gods are angry!

That’s why I was on my feet asking the lord of hails kung bakit nagkaron nang hailstones “the size of corn kernels that pelted two barangays in Parañaque City on Tuesday afternoon!”. Yon ang sabi sa news.

I’m telling you! Da gods are angry! Pero, teka lang! Sinong tiga-Parañaque ang binabato nang dyos?!

As if this was not enough, nasaktan ang isang mama, nung lumipad ang isang school building at tatlong bungalow hahaha! charing lang! but this is true! they were either damaged or destroyed when a whirlwind or a “buhawi” swept through Sariaya town, Quezon province, noong Sunday afternoon.

Da gods are really angry! I guess, talagang pilit na dini-divay-divay ang Quezon.

Akala nyo ba tapos na ako? Nope. Pinamamalita ngayon sa Manila na darating daw ang isang daku! Yeap, a big one. Daku. Kaya pinag-pe-prepare ang Metro Manila for big quake where experts say that “it will be in the 7-8 magnitude and this tremor is highly probable”. Leche oo!

Da gods are really angry!

I have no clue what’s going on with all these news dahil sumabay sya sa ni-release na report nang “United Nations’ International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) on Monday, na sinabing the Philippines ranks No. 12 among 200 countries and territories whose populations are most at risk from earthquakes, floods, tropical cyclones and landslides.” At ano ang title na binigay saten? “RP one of unsafest places on Earth“.

Pati ba UN galit saten? Don’t tell me na nalaman nila yong World Bank contracts?!

Nami-miss ko si Tessie Tomas. Nung panahon ko sa Manila, napanood ko sya sa Makati. Sya ang aming Amanda Pineda, na inokray okray si Amado Pineda, yong weder pourkaster. Kelangan ko sya pag ganito ang mga balita.

Makinig sa Pagasa. Preparedness should be year round.

Pero kelangan nating mag-alay.

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88 Comments »

  • Silver says:

    Kinakatakot ko lang yung mga buhawi kasi they are getting prevalent these days.

    • Kotsengkuba says:

      naku silver, yan din ang obserbasyon ko. dumarami ang instances ng buhawi lately.

      anjan na naman pala si benigno, ano na naman kaya menhase nyan sa sang-katauhan? anyway, bakit wala parin ignore button dito. persona ingrata, hahaha.

      • roni says:

        @kk
        prophet??? true or false?

      • reynz says:

        in Philadelphia,

        i have experienced several blizzards including the worst blizzard of the century in the 90’s where umabot nang 38 inches ang snow sa labas and the city was shutdown for 3 days.

        wall to wall ice everywhere, halos di na kami makalabas nang bahay.

        for several years now, ang snow sa philadelphia eh kakarampot na lang. minsan parang hatsing na lang.

  • mel beckham says:

    keep safe mga kapatid! this is not good talaga!

  • benign0 says:

    I don’t think the gods are angry now in particular. They always have been and always will be.

    Life and nature are inherently unpredictable. No amount of stability in the past necessarily guarantees stability in the future. That’s what did a lot of these economists and financial experts in. They predicted the future based on what happened in the past. It does not follow.

    I read in the book The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb, the Parable of the Turkey. A turkey who gets fed by the farmer everyday would most likely believe that the farmer is his best friend and even his god. A turkey has no way of knowing what his fate will be in the hands of his “best friend” or “god” on a fateful Thanksgiving eve sometime in the future.

    Just because things are hunky dory today as it has been in the past does not mean that the future will be the same.

    Yan ang problema sa Pinas. It lacks resilience. It depends so much on external factors for its survival — OFW remittances, rice and corn imports, foreign investment, foreign exchange, foreign markets for its products, etc. It is also a ticking bomb. No amount of earthquakes and cyclones in its past changes its outlook to the future. It still floods in Malabon, people still throw garbage and raw sewage in already clogged esteros, substandard infrastructure gets built, forests are still cleared, people still travel on rickety ships.

    And then we wonder why year after year, disaster strikes in one form or another.

    • reynz says:

      “I don’t think the gods are angry now in particular. They always have been and always will be.”

      Well, i don’t really mean it literally that way. I was making fun of the dire situation which we always do when I was back home just to forget super-typhoons.

      I’m sure the weather imbalance that’s happening around the world is the result and/or at least caused by humans mismanaging mother earth’s resources and it’s wanton and continued disregard for environment.

      And even though mahilig ako sa beauty pageant, Miss Earth is not really “it” that would help governments in the world to help in the legislation to protect mother earth.

      …more

    • reynz says:

      “Yan ang problema sa Pinas. It lacks resilience.”

      We’re not resilient?! Eh pano tayo nag-survive sa mga impaktong demonyong tarantadong lecheng gagong walanghiyang engot suwail [insert more nasty word here] na pulitikos na nilapastangan ang buhay naten???

      Pano kami nag-survive sa Bikol na halos wala man lang kaming matinong highway instead what we have is a talahib highway?

      Pano ako naka-alpas sa lecheng poverty sa Barrio Siete kung mahina ang tuhod ko’t manipis ang mukha ko? Feel mo muka ko… makapal sya…

      At pano ako naka-survive sa Amerika at sinipa ang mga puting pwet at maging Reyna samantalang galing lang ako nang Barrio Siete?

      Kung hindi resilience yon ano tawag nun?

    • reynz says:

      “It depends so much on external factors for its survival —” …. more later… balik uli ako sa pabrika… kumain lang ako!

    • reynz says:

      “The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb”

      YES. Maganda ang book na yan benigno. And here’s what my obserbation at swak sa “black swan” concept nya.

      For some reason, i believe na you are familiar with derivatives. I-google mo sya and you’ll find na me mga algorithmic formula sya. I was always curious why there were physicist who were working for investment companies. Yon pala, sila yong nag-susulat nong mga lecheng formula on how to arrive at some numbers na eto ang kikitain mo after x number of years if you invest here.

      Applying the black swan concept – ang problema karamihan sa mga physicist na to was that – they never imagined about subprime na yong mga pinapasa-pasa nilang derivatives eh me mga halo nang MBS – MBS na pag tiningnan mo nang maigi has some serious problems na wala sa formula nila.

      Eto. How could one put one formula kung kelan male-late ang isang borrower or homeowner sa mortgage nya? Pano mo ilalagay sa formula kung mawawalan ka nang trabaho? These were the risks na hindi naisip nung mga investment analintek reviewers.

      Swak ba?

  • ajay says:

    Natawa naman ako sa sinabi mong “Sinong taga-Paranaque ang binabato ng Dyos? ” Taga-Paranaque ako eh… hehehe

  • angela says:

    teka teka benigz ;) nahahalata tuloy na wala ka sa pinas and you don’t know or have forgotten what it’s like when typhoons hit, dyos ko, when i remember milenyo ninenerbiyos talaga ako dito sa feria dahil josko grabe ang mga nagtumbang puno at meralco post at blackout at brownout and kahit anong sara ko nang bintana eh pinasok pa rin ng ulan at hangin at nabasa ang mga bookshelves ko at mga libro at nakakanerbiyos lang ang pito ng hangin na para bang end of the world na and nagdadasal ka na lang na sana matapos na, kawawa naman ang mga taong nagkagibagiba na lang ang mga bahay at buhay. nothing to do with the pinoy’s alleged lack of resilence, utang na loob!!@#$%^&*(@#$@!!!

  • Rob Angeles says:

    “RP one of unsafest places on Earth“.

    WHAT?! Wait til they see Baltimore!

  • benign0 says:

    reynz/angela, true. Pero hanggang survival na lang ba ang aspirations natin? (and when I say that, I am talking about Filipinos as a collective) ;)

    Maybe that’s the reason why we don achieve big — because we don’t aspire big.

    • Rob Angeles says:

      “We don’t aspire big”

      Interesting..

      Bro, can you share some thoughts on how to change this mentality?

    • Silver says:

      Parang ang panget naman ata kung to collectively define na Filipinos dont aspire big. Not necessarily all Filipinos naman dont aspire big.

      There are Filipinos out there na maraming na-achieve and to think that some of them e baka hindi na lang napalabas sa mainstream media.

      Sweeping generalizations dont make it good. It sounds like that you have a collective bias.

    • reynz says:

      “Pero hanggang survival na lang ba ang aspirations natin?”

      When I was in the Barrio? It was both survival and making alpas sa kahirapan which was just normal for one like moi to be in a situation like that. I had a dream kahit na hindi ako si Martin Luther King. Dahil sa hirap, it was survival, but I don’t think it was survival all throughout!

      Look at me! I’m no role model pero kung ano ano na ang aking aspirations ngayon.

      Maybe you don’t know too many people who lived in the Barrio who had dreams and worked on those dreams. Sabi nga ni Charice, dreams do come true. You just have to put your hands on it.

      You probably don’t socialize much Benigno.

      • Rosa says:

        Ang daming mali mong sinabi Benigno sa dalawang comment mo
        hindi resilient ang Pilipino. Naku para tayong mga ipis at mga primitive animals nakasurvive sa mga pinagdaanan na hirap ng buhay at ito nakangiti pa rin.
        We only aspire for survival kamo. Speak for yourself, I think we have very highly educated workforce because we all want not just to surive but to excel in our chosen fields. Problema nga lang at walang trabaho after graduation ang karamihan. Pero I know so many people who are reaching out for the stars ika nga so where did you get this idea? Naku Benigno, stop this generalizing. It is getting tiresome.

  • Mahalia says:

    Reynz ano ba yung tawag sa pyramid of needs? Maslow’s diba? Survival is at the bottom of the needs. I wonder why we want to survive (greater population)…Siguro dahil madalang ang incentibong umunlad sa ating bansa? Siguro dahil instead na ibalik sa tao at maging katulong ang mga namumuno ay ipapagawa muna ang kanilang mansion. Imbes na ilagay sa emergency funding, o better housing ng sambayanan? Siguro imbes na maging atraktibo ang bansa sa foreign investment ay na-didiscourage ng red tape at ng suhol dito at suhol doon na iilang porsyento lang ng mamamayanan ang na-bebenepisyuhan.

    Benigz,

    Yan ang problema sa Pinas. It lacks resilience.

    I disagree. Dahil kahit na saang parte ka nang Pilipinas pumunta resilience ang tema. At kahit gaano kahirap ang danasin ng mga nag-aabroad, resilience din ang tema. Diba ang resilience ay translated ng mabilis na pagbawi. Tell me one Filipino who just gave up and would not do anything about his present situation. Kahit nga nakatira na sa tabi ng riles, ayon pa rin nag-bukas ng maliit na karihan para lang mapa-aral ang mga anak. Di ba ang isa pang translation ng resilience ay kakunatan, ilang piyon at manggagawa ba sa atin ang mas makunat pa ang balakang sa tira tira kendi sa pagtratrabaho para lang matapos ang project at maka-pagdala man lamang ng pancit sa hapag-kainan.

    Kapag bumabaha ba ay di na sila papasok sa trabaho? O kaya naman kapag natanggay ng hangin ang bubong ay di na sila hahanap ng yero at gulong sa kanilang bubungan.

    Talk to be about resilience kapag naranasan mo nang tunay na maghirap. Yung tipo bang wala ka nang makakain at nangangatok ka sa kapit bahay para humingi ng bigas dahil di ka na pinapautang sa sari-sari store. Talk to me about aspiring big kapag darating na naman ang tuition fee increase. Talk to me about fancy books kapag pasal na ang tiyan sa paghihintay ng kasunod na pagkain.

    Then maybe, just maybe, you are right…

    • Silver says:

      Mahalia,

      Share ko sa iyo ang puto-pao na ito:

      Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

      I remember nung college days ko na I am a devoted Maslonian and Adlerian. :D

    • reynz says:

      @mahalia,

      eto sya: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs

      Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation,[2] which he subsequently extended to include his observations of humans’ innate curiosity.

      Maslow studied what he called exemplary people such as Albert Einstein, Jane Addams, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Frederick Douglass rather than mentally ill or neurotic people, writing that “the study of crippled, stunted, immature, and unhealthy specimens can yield only a cripple psychology and a cripple philosophy.”[3] Maslow also studied the healthiest one percent of the college student population. In his book, The Farther Reaches of Human Nature, Maslow writes, “By ordinary standards of this kind of laboratory research… this simply was not research at all. My generalizations grew out of my selection of certain kinds of people. Obviously, other judges are needed.”[4]

  • roni says:

    Maybe that’s the reason why we don achieve big — because we don’t aspire big.

    sang-ayon ako, pero kailangan in a collective way. pero papano na lang kung isang dosena ang anak o kapatid, tapos maliit lang ang sweldo?
    Para sa akin, nandyan na yan, pangatawanan. Wag sisihin ang gobyerno, anihin ng anak ang kasalanan ng magulang. (sinabi na kasing hugot eh)

  • Glo says:

    HAYY…the Gods are indeed angry. sasabihin ng eligious fantic eh this is the end of the world. ;) hehehe.

    weird weird weird. di magtatagal eh baka mag ka-winter na dito sa pinas! hahaha.

    minsan iniisip ko, dahil sa tindi ng population dito eh kung ano ano nang gingawa ng ‘powers that be’. swine flu, earthquake, typhoons, etc. ngayon umalan na ng nyebe at meron na ding buhawi. anong susunod? anthrax??? hayyy…magtatago na lang kami sa ilalinm ng lupa.

  • benign0 says:

    Interesting..

    Bro, can you share some thoughts on how to change this mentality?

    Rob Angeles, perhaps Nick Joaquin’s article A Heritage of Smallness may help understand where I am coming from, see some relevant excerpts from that essay below:

    The Filipino who travels abroad gets to thinking that his is the hardest working country in the world. By six or seven in the morning we are already up on our way to work, shops and markets are open; the wheels of industry are already agrind. Abroad, especially in the West, if you go out at seven in the morning you’re in a dead-town. Everybody’s still in bed; everything’s still closed up. Activity doesn’t begin till nine or ten– and ceases promptly at five p.m. By six, the business sections are dead towns again. The entire cities go to sleep on weekends. They have a shorter working day, a shorter working week. Yet they pile up more mileage than we who work all day and all week.

    [...]

    We work more but make less. Why? Because we act on such a pygmy scale. Abroad they would think you mad if you went in a store and tried to buy just one stick of cigarette. They don’t operate on the scale. The difference is greater than between having and not having; the difference is in the way of thinking. They are accustomed to thinking dynamically. We have the habit, whatever our individual resources, of thinking poor, of thinking petty.

    Is that the explanation for our continuing failure to rise–that we buy small and sell small, that we think small and do small?

    Are we not confusing timidity for humility and making a virtue of what may be the worst of our vices? Is not our timorous clinging to smallness the bondage we must break if we are ever to inherit the earth and be free, independent, progressive? The small must ever be prey to the big. Aldous Huxley said that some people are born victims, or “murderers.” He came to the Philippines and thought us the “least original” of people. Is there not a relation between his two terms? Originality requires daring: the daring to destroy the obsolete, to annihilate the petty. It’s cold comfort to think we haven’t developed that kind of “murderer mentality.”

    But till we do we had best stop talking about “our heritage of greatness” for the national heritage is– let’s face it– a heritage of smallness.

    Jeepneys are an example.

    They are small pwede-na-yan solutions that served a need at a point in time in the past. Trouble is, when the scale of the need changed, we did not bother to change the scale of the solution (at least not at the time when recognising the need to change it was optimal).

    • Rob Angeles says:

      Got it! But there are also Filipinos out there, given a chance, can make a big difference.

      One thing I observed though is that there are some, though already in the West, still carry the same kind of mentality. Only the place changed. Sad.

    • reynz says:

      @benigno, try kong isa-isahin kasi i don’t know kung applicable or tama ang comparison ni Nick Joaquin:

      Here, as what you wrote, he said: (A.)

      By six or seven in the morning we are already up on our way to work, shops and markets are open; the wheels of industry are already agrind. Abroad, especially in the West, if you go out at seven in the morning you’re in a dead-town. Everybody’s still in bed; everything’s still closed up.

      This is true. In Manila, you have to be up early. In the US, eto ako: I work from 8:30-5:00. Gizing ko 6:00, alis ako 8:00.

      What could it be? We have great network of highways here. I’m sure in Australia, ganun din.

      Then, eto pa: (B.)

      We work more but make less. Why? Because we act on such a pygmy scale.

      What could it be? Business here flourishes, set aside the financial crisis. Why? The government encourages entrepreneurship. When I mean, encourages, they are “friendly”. Did i say government? Yes, strike two.

      And then i took note of the “WE” Ba’t sinisisi mo sa Pinoy ang mga kalechehan nang gobyerno? If the government did their part, I’m sure we won’t be doing (A) or (B).

      To me the comparison does not make sense and it’s not a fair comparison, therefore, you cannot make the argument that followed.

      • darbs says:

        No, Mr. Nick Q. What year was that?

        2009 NY!
        Sorry but not in New York City.
        7:00 o’Clock is buzzling with working men and women of AMERICA.

        MTA trains would tell you…

  • benign0 says:

    I’d also like to highlight this particular passage…

    Are we not confusing timidity for humility and making a virtue of what may be the worst of our vices?

    … in response to the general reaction to my assertion of our society’s lack of resilience.

    To be fair, it is true, we are a resilient people in terms of being able to come out smiling even in the aftermath of grave disasters, living with poor infrastructure, decrepit facilities, no-results services, etc.

    But pursuing a claim to resilience in the manner above is not too different from a cockroach’s claim to the same virtue. As the glib assertion goes, in a nuclear war, the only urban form of life likely to survive will be a cockroach. You can argue then along those lines that the cockroach is a “resilient” specie.

    Indeed, we can go as far as saying that if we lived like cavemen today, no amount of natural disasters or “financial crises” would bother us.

    The fact is, advanced Western societies build advanced ways of life at the risk of catastrophic collapse in the event of an unforeseen calamity. But isn’t that the same as willingly pursuing romance at the risk of catastophic pain?

    Which would we rather be? A people who dreams big, ventures big, and possibly achieves big even at the risk of catastrophic failure? Or would we rather be comfy in our mediocrity and pygmy dreams and console ourselves with the promise of never having to risk failure?

    - ;)

    • Reesie says:

      Mahirap man tanggapin, pero I have to agree with Mr. Benigno on this. Hehehe

      I have known a lot of American people who went to the Philippines and they have one common description of Filipinos: We are contented people. We don’t aspire big. I don’t know if that is an innate culture we got from the Spaniards. It is interesting to note that most of the countries that were under Spain are not doing well economically.

      My two pesos worth lang naman…

      • Rob Angeles says:

        I do agree with the gentleman too. Sad nga lang dahil ang hirap hanapin ng solusyon.

      • Rob Angeles says:

        Except sa cockroach..

      • Glo says:

        tama ka sa observation mo ressie…lahat ng bansang nasakop ng spaniards eh taghirap ngayon.

        sa kaso ng pinas, di ko alam kung kasalanan ba yan ng spaniards o sadya lang may pagka-tamad ang mga pinoys dahil nga we are island people at feeling natin everyday eh bakasyon tayo sa beach?

        yeah sobrang babaw ng kaligayan kaya kahit 50-pesos-a-day na kita eh kuntento na. ;) hayyy.

      • reynz says:

        exception to the rule ako Reesie hehehe I want to be the 1st woman president of the philippines! hahaha

    • reynz says:

      ANAK NANG LECHE! at ginawa mo kaming cockroaches! HAHAHA

      But pursuing a claim to resilience in the manner above is not too different from a cockroach’s claim to the same virtue.

      me thinking and feeling ba ang cockroaches?!
      nag-e-evolve ba ang cockroaches to have a good life? di ba they always prefer damp and well… you know more… you’ve been there! hahaha!

      it’s a funny comparison pero sablay sya benigno! wala pa akong cockroaches na nakikitang naka Diesel pants na binili sa London na dating tiga Barrio Siete hahaha you know what i mean?

  • Reesie says:

    When I say we don’t aspire big I mean as a country not individually.

    • dFish says:

      Very succinct point Rees…Amen…

    • dFish says:

      A country in point, worth learning from is South Korea para medyo mas malapit. It’s not the geophysical distance as the bone of contention. It’s also about asking what kind of cultural context and models of development the Philippines is trying to pursue? It is European-centered or the American blueprint of capitalist economic model? South Korea, back in the 70s, ay halos kimchi ay hindi makaluto. They were as poor as other Asian countries. It is in insular country, reclusive for centuries and never learned the languages of conquerors. Evne their Hangeul alphabet is considered one work of cultural genius and innovation. Then they began to dream as a nation, they collectively work to industrialize the country, borrowed ideas here and there and innovate those, make them globally classy. They dream bigtime. Now, slowly, they are becoming global conquerors themselves because money and economic success brought some self-esteem, confidence and international opportunities.Their work habits is equal to their vision to become as globally competitive as Japan. South Korea is one success story worth learning from…

      • dFish says:

        “Jeepneys are an example.”

        Sasabayan ko to. Sarao and Francisco Motors at may katagalang namamayagpag na rin sa ating mga kakalsadahan. But how come we can’t make it as globally classy as those affordable Kia or Hyundai that South Korea struts on? I agree with regard to the tingi-tingi mentality, the collective mentality of mediocrity, the lack of vision, the flight from common responsibility to make this nation as globally competitive as possible. South Korea’s automobile industry started in the early 70s with the Pony car with a design from Italy and borrowed transmission, engine and suspension technology from Japan’s Mitsubishi Motor. Now Hyundai has all the luxury and affordable cars that crowd the global market. Their Genesis is their equal version of BMW and Benz…

  • [...] I’m glad that the typhoon didn’t pound the bicol region, but I am not happy that the rest of the country has been affected. It is just the middle of the year and year the typhoon’s name is already on the letter F (Feria). But then, it looks like the gods are angry. [...]

  • darbs says:

    Feeling religious lately?

    In times of trouble and disaster…

    My religiosity/spirituality/ should say, what about a made up prayer… tradisyon at kultura lang, walang personalan. Paniniwala…title siguro nito is HOY!

    IKAW! na naghahasik ng mga alabok!
    Hoy, IKAW! na gumawa ng milagro!
    IKAW! na may pakana sa buhawi,
    IKAW ay IKAW
    sya nawa.
    Amen.Amen
    H 0 Y!

    • darbs says:

      Ten principles:

      #3 …In France, the socialists took over the banks…In the US in the 2000s, the banks took over the government. This is surreal.

      Interesting…

  • benign0 says:

    And then i took note of the “WE” Ba’t sinisisi mo sa Pinoy ang mga kalechehan nang gobyerno? If the government did their part, I’m sure we won’t be doing (A) or (B).

    To me the comparison does not make sense and it’s not a fair comparison, therefore, you cannot make the argument that followed.

    While the government is responsible for much of the infrastructure work required to grease the wheels of commerce, I continue to assert that the bigger onus is on the wherewithal of Da Pinoy to prosper in a big way despite whatever challenge we may face collectively. We need to want to achieve badly enough to actually pull it off.

    Why for example does the Filipino-Chinese community (or any Chinese community all over the world), consistently fare relatively well in the game of commerce?

    In the Philippines, the Chinese community were subject to the same decrepit infrastructure, the same convoluted red tape, the same moronic politics, and the same wilting climate.

    And yet they achieved. All that from a people who started out as 3rd class citizens — taho and balut vendors, collectors of kaning-baboy, derided as beho, etc.

    Today they control banking and finance, retail, food distribution, shipping (together with old Spanish families), and have since gained political power as well.

    In Southeast Asia, the original Asian Tigers — Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong are all culturally linked to Greater China (which itself is the platform culture of its offspring civilisations: Japan and Korea). Even a 2nd-rate tiger like Malaysia owes its success to its ethnic Chinese minority.

    South Korea was ruled by an autocratic and corrupt government too when it was still a developing nation (some say even today). But it prospered nonetheless (and went on to prosecute and convict two of its ex-Presidents for said corruption).

    • angela says:

      i think pinoys have learned to think small, aspire small, mababaw ang kaligayahan ika nga, as a mode of adjustment, as a survival mechanism, in the face nga of the kalechehan ng gobyerno ever since the commonwealth pa. the pinoys who think big, aspire big, well, nangingibang bansa kayo di ba.

      re facing challenges collectively: impossible habang we are a fragmented society, habang divide-and-rule ang modus operandi ng powers-that-be, habang we fail to speak one language that can unite the nation from aparri to jolo…

      • reynz says:

        @angela,

        been reading BENIGNO’s comments and what i am reading is puro generalizations OF filipinos… am i reading this right???

        puro Pinoy. puro Pinoy.

        buti na lang Merkano na ako hehehe

    • angela says:

      @reynz,

      actually yes, sweeping generalizations, para na nga siyang broken record kasi kahit anong simulan na isyu, basta critical lang siya of pinoys. ang theory ko nga eh it’s because he’s defensive about having abandoned pinas, so parang he’s forever trying to convince us, and himself, na he was right, he is right, to have left. hehe theory lang naman ng isang psychologist na hilaw. anyway, i don’t get that kind of vibes from you, reynz, or haha i wouldn’t be here ;)

  • Snow says:

    “I’m telling you! Da gods are angry! Pero, teka lang! Sinong tiga-Parañaque ang binabato nang dyos?”

    naku reynz, ako may former BFF na taga-Paranaque. sana po tinamaan ng bato…

    peace po… *shy*

    pero kidding aside, tingin ko gawa ito ng global warming. ;)

    • darbs says:

      Wow, mukhang natumbok ang keyword,

      Global Warming!

      Believe it or not may nagsabing Myth daw ang Global Warming.

      Gawa gawa lang daw para takutin tayo! at tayoy mag suffer! at di na tayo maka luxuries na punong punong ng ENERGY POWER! Mag Green? ngggeee… kadiri! – - lots of them.

      Dahil pag totoo ang kalechehang Global Warming, negosyo nila malulugi. ano na lang daw ang mangyari sa kaletchehang ekonomiya ng bayan.

  • [...] at Barrio Siete, Mr. Reyna Elena frets over the frightening prospect of (at the time of writing) the coming tropical cyclone that is [...]

  • lee says:

    matanong lang kita kamahalan, paki explain nawawala nanaman ang IQ kong kapiranggot naisakisak ko kung saang kabinet:
    why gos? marami ba sila?
    why “g” small letter?

    i hate to say this, i really admire benign0 big time…noon pa and i hate it i hate it i hate it! ahahahahaha

    • darbs says:

      @lee, nakalimutan mo na ba ang kasabihang, “The more you hate, the more you love”

      Hindi mo na kasalanan ang iyong nararamdaman. Kasalanan ba ng puso, kung ang puso ay di matuturuan, lalo na ang puso signifies love?

      Kantahin mo na lang ang… You and I will build a world of our own… as we walk in this land… hand in hand … heart in heart darling. As we walk in faith, WE’LL MAKE A MEMORY.

      Don’t forget the Amen at the end.

      Darbs
      Kabaw Mental Medical Clinic
      Fil-Am Spiritista Oriental-Western Medical Spritual Therapy in Social Justice and Good Moral and Right Conduct.

      BWAHAHA1

      • lee says:

        @darbs, san ba yang clinic na yan hahaha
        bully kasi yang si benign0 e lol

      • dFish says:

        Tignan nyo nga naman, di ba si darbs, parang si Tia Dely lang, blog version…Bwahahaha

      • lee says:

        @dfish, nagtataka nga ako e bat di kayo mag contribute ng blog dito sa barrio

      • darbs says:

        bully kasi yang si benign0 e lol

        @lee, formal…ehem.
        Bully ba ang tinibok ng puso mo?
        or nabasa/narinig mo lang na syay bully?

        Darbs
        Kabaw Mental Medical Clinic
        Fil-Am Spiritista Oriental-Western Medical Spritual Therapy in Social Justice and Good Moral and Right Conduct.

        Licensed: Therapy-Healing Commission of Barrio Sieti, Irog-irog Street, Santimaan Santa Krus, Cyber Space, Internet.

      • lee says:

        @darbs, ang nakikinig sa sabi-sabi walang bait sa sarili, san ba yang clinic na yan mapuntahan

      • dFish says:

        Lee, kelangan ko pa ng maraming therapy sessions with the Blogging Therapist.

        Me kontrata na din ako kay Kapitana – usiserong sagigilid lang muna. Busy pa kasi ako sa pagbalangkas ng By-Laws ng Asosasyon ng mga Duty Free Models where i am the bwiset presidente hahaha…

      • lee says:

        @dfish, huh! meron ba?di ako nagbasa ng mga by laws at kung meron man tingin mo mauunawaan ko ang laws? tagalog pede rin naman lol

      • dFish says:

        Oo meron Lee – update lang. Ang mga Duty Free Models (nasa sales), gusto na rin daw magkaron ng access sa internet at mga blogs habang nagbabantay sa tindahan. So kelangan amyendahan ang by-laws, Toinks!

      • lee says:

        @dfish, kung ganun uuwi nako dyan satin at mag aaply na sales lady lol

  • benign0 says:

    Look at me! I’m no role model pero kung ano ano na ang aking aspirations ngayon.

    Maybe you don’t know too many people who lived in the Barrio who had dreams and worked on those dreams. Sabi nga ni Charice, dreams do come true. You just have to put your hands on it.

    You probably don’t socialize much Benigno.

    Yes, Mr. reynz, you are an example of an individual who stepped up and overcame the challenges that faced you (instead of making them excuses not to succeed.

    But does that make you representative,/i> of the average Pinoy. Quite the opposite, i should think. You are more of an exceptional case, much the same way as other Filipinos who achieved things as individuals.

    In Japan there are lots of homeless people that we can cite individually. But just because we are able to cite an individual Japanese bum, does not necessarily mean we can generalise Japan as a society of bums. In the same way, just because you can cite yourself and your achievements (or for that matter, any other Pinoy individual who made it big) does not necessarily mean we can generalise the collective capability of Pinoys to achieve.

    • reynz says:

      “But does that make you representative,/i> of the average Pinoy.”

      i wish i was para pagsasapakin ko yang mga walang ginawa mag reklamo hahaha!

  • roni says:

    grabeng intellectual intercourse itoh, wag sanang mabaog!

    @ darbs, ang gara ng tula mo, panalo!

    • darbs says:

      @ darbs, ang gara ng tula mo, panalo!

      What? nanalo ako ng tula? hahaha!

      seriously. Since when?

      @Roni, pinalaki mo naman ang atay ko.

      Do you know something that I don’t know?

      Please, educate me…

      Thank you.

      Drama:
      Dahil ayokong mangarap ng gising, gumagalak, sumasaya sa huli, hindi naman pala. ubos na po ang aking luha. naging bato na po ang aking puso.

      Stage show! HETO NAPO SILA! The Apo Hiking Society!

      Free ads Pinoy Association
      Barrio Siete, Smokey County
      Basura, Garbage 10101010101

    • dFish says:

      “wag sanang mabaog!”

      What a prayer Ron. Bwahahaha. Baog na nga siguro kaya ganun hahaha…

  • benign0 says:

    Mr. reynz re your comments on The Black Swan;

    I can’t really claim to possess deep knowledge on derivatives, but I think I understand what they are in principle. I did write about how they played a part in this fincancial crisis here (excerpt follows below).

    Here goes:

    What the Ordinary Schmoe wants

    Most people want to own their own homes. For most people, the only way to own a home is to borrow money to be able to buy one. Lenders, made comfy by a stretch of prosperous times, developed loan products designed for borrowers who could not afford to take on debt marketed via more conventional loan products. These new loan products were marketed aggressively to people who in more prudent times would otherwise have been excluded from the homeloan market. These people succumbed to clever marketing and by their own free will entered into the commitments stipulated in the small print of these products — most notable of which were the parts stating that you will need to pay back what you borrow [Principle X violation Number One].

    What the banks tried to pull off

    By definition, an asset is something that generates recurring income for its owner. So for banks, money lent is considered to be an asset, (because of the interest paid to it by those to which it lends money to). Some bright boys (”experts” like a few people here) hit upon the idea of chopping up these assets into smaller units that were smaller than their original unit of regard [in this case the original "unit of regard" is the loan account itself]. They then sold these pieces of assets in the market as securities — supposedly made “secure” by their “underlying” debt assets (the original loan accounts) held in banks that, in turn, were “secured” by the real estate that served as collateral. The tangible asset here, ultimately, is this real estate which had a one-to-one correspondence with (i.e., it was mortgaged against) the loan account. Unfortunately the value of the asset was no more than a perception (kind of like how a few roses on the front yard can jack up the price of a property by a few thousand dollars). [Pinciple Y at work, gentlemen]

    The assumptions that made ASSes out of everyone.

    Within the “mortgage belt” of most societies (particularly in that high-risk sector of society that these new products had been sold to), defaults on loans are pretty frequent to begin with. What made the planets align in this instance that triggered the chain reaction of implosion could have been a combination of already-inflated perceptions of the value of real property in those areas, and the additional (but still at the time unknown or mis-represented) risk to the system introduced by take up of the new debt products by a low-quality market. The stage had been set a long time ago as the accountants’ “expert” quantification of risk (an example of which is as what is stated in that little line item on the Liabilities side of most business’s balance sheets usually called “Provision for bad debt“) progressively became understated. While the risk of loan defaults increased, the assumed or estimated value in the Provision for Bad Debts thingy remained the same or was not increased proportionately.

    Kung baga, if you are gonna lend to losers, you better assume that either (a) you won’t be paid back, or (b) you will be paid back only a portion of what you lent.

    The “experts” apparently did not see it that way. Either that or they were too limp-dicked (as accountants and “economists” tend to be) to tell their bosses and the Alpha-male hotshots that sell these products what the real score really was.

    Kung baga derivatives are abstracted assets, abstracted because they are linked to the actual tangible asset using abstract mathematical constructs that these scientists (I think their called “financial engineers”) cook up.

    I know what you’re saying about the over-reliance on algorithmic formulas.

    It’s kinda like using an Excel spreadsheet. You set up all the formulas and then start creating all kinds of stuff that shift and change depending on the formulas you set up. Trouble is, if you forget to take something into account in your formulas, you lose track of how the model you built in your spreadsheet behaves.

    Worse, because it is so easy to copy, drag-and-drop, and auto-fill in Excel, an otherwise small error sometimes gets rapidly propagated. Yari tayo!

    • lee says:

      juice kupu nahihilo ako, naikot ang lagid at paningin koh

    • reynz says:

      @benigno,

      i have an unfinished derivatives entry sa reyna elena. hopefully tapusin ko na lang kaya yun and post sa barrio.

      a lot of people bank on “perceived values” nang bahay. but that was not really the source nung krisis.

      derivatives actually played a big role because that was a big shady and unregulated stock market sa wall street that caused the crisis and not subprimes although un parati ang nasisi and of course malaki talaga ang subprime at ang tinamaan were working americans.

  • darbs says:

    @dfish, minsan lang ako dun sa kavilang varrio dahil ganito ang mga inglisirs tapos ngayon sa barrio ganito na rin nyahahahaha bonamiiiiiine!

    hahaha! the Gods Must Be Angry pa lang yan,

    Wait and watch the movie, Gods must be Crazy 1 and 2: comedy.

    Paki watch na rin “Mel Brooks, History of the World: Comedy”

    • lee says:

      @darbs, e sinu ba naman magaakalang dadayuhin to ng kavilang vario voys at dito magkakalat ng nakakaloka at nakakahilong inglisirs— hirap ng di nag-aral–

      akin pang naaalala, nung si amay nabubuhay paaaaa–
      –ang sabi nyay freddie, magaral kang mabuti
      tulungan mo ang yong sarili.

      ngayon get ko na bat nya ko este si freddie pala, kung bat nya pinag-aaral ng mabuti si freddie, dahil alam ni ama na darating ang araw magsusulputan ang mga kabuteng lason na nakaka inglis

  • silver says:

    Paorder nga po ng limang banig na bonamine at isang bucket ng shoktong….

    Fleaseeee…

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